David Baltimore (born March 7, 1938) is an American biologist, university administrator, and Nobel laureate in Physiology or Medicine. He served as president of the California Institute of Technology (...

Harold Eliot Varmus (born December 18, 1939) is an American Nobel Prize-winning scientist and the 14th and current Director of the National Cancer Institute, a post he was appointed to by President B...

Sydney Brenner , CH FRS FMedSci (born 13 January 1927) is a South African biologist and a 2002 Nobel prize in Physiology or Medicine laureate, shared with H. Robert Horvitz and John Sulston.
Brenner ...

Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine

On 27 November 1895, Alfred Nobel signed his last will and testament, giving the largest share of his fortune to a series of prizes, the Nobel Prizes. As described in Nobel's will, one part was dedicated to “the person who shall have made the most important discovery within the domain of physiology or medicine”. The Medicine Prize has subsequently highlighted a number of important discoveries including penicillin, genetic engineering and blood-typing.

The Nobel Assembly at Karolinska Institutet is responsible for selecting the Nobel Laureates in Physiology or Medicine. The Nobel Assembly has 50 voting members and is composed of professors in medical subjects at Karolinska Institutet in Stockholm, Sweden. Its working body is the Nobel Committee, elected from among its members for a three-year term.

The 105 Nobel Prizes for Physiology or Medicine have been awarded to 204 individuals (to 2014), of which 11 women have won the prize. There have been 38 times when the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine was awarded to a single individual, 32 times when it was shared by two and 34 times there were three winner, the maximum allowed.

Youngest Medicine Laureate: To date, the youngest Nobel Laureate in Physiology or Medicine is Frederick Grant Banting, who was 32 years old when he was awarded the Medicine Prize in 1923.

Oldest Medicine Laureate: The oldest Nobel Laureate in Physiology or Medicine to date is Peyton Rous, who was 87 years old when he was awarded the Medicine Prize in 1966.

Oldest living Nobel Laureate: The Nobel Laureate who lived to the oldest age was Rita Levi-Montalcini, who was awarded the 1986 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine. She was the first Nobel laureate ever to reach a 100th birthday. She celebrated her 103th anniversary on 22 April 2012 and passed away on December 30, 2012.

The Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine has been awarded 104 times to 204 Nobel Laureates between 1901 and 2014. It was not awarded on nine occasions: in 1915, 1916, 1917, 1918, 1921, 1925, 1940, 1941 and 1942.

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2014: divided, one half awarded to John O'Keefe (b. 1939) American-British neuroscientist, the other half jointly to May-Britt Moser (b. 1963) Norwegian psychologist and neuroscientist; and to her husband Edvard I. Moser (b. 1962) Norwegian psychologist and neuroscientist, "for their discoveries of cells that constitute a positioning system in the brain".

1994: jointly to: Alfred G. Gilman (b. 1944) American pharmacologist and biochemist, and Martin Rodbell (1925 - 1998) American biochemist and molecular endocrinologist, "for their discovery of G-proteins and the role of these proteins in signal transduction in cells"

1984: jointly to: Niels K. Jerne (1911 - 1994) Danish immunologist, to Georges J.F. Köhler (1946 - 1995) German immunologist, and to César Milstein (1927 - 2002) Argentinian-born British immunologist, "for theories concerning the specificity in development and control of the immune system and the discovery of the principle for production of monoclonal antibodies".

1978: jointly to: Werner Arber (b. 1929) Swiss microbiologist and geneticist, to Daniel Nathans (1928 - 1999) American microbiologist and geneticist - sometimes called the father of modern biotechnology, and to Hamilton O. Smith (b. 1931) American microbiologist and geneticist, "for the discovery of restriction enzymes and their application to problems of molecular genetics".

1977: divided, one half to: Roger Guillemin (b. 1924) American endocrinologist, and to Andrew V. Schally (b. 1926) American endocrinologist, "for their discoveries concerning the peptide hormone production of the brain", and the other half to: Rosalyn Yalow (1921 - 2011) American endocrinologist, "for the development of radioimmunoassays of peptide hormones".

1958: one half jointly to George Wells Beadle (1903 - 1989) American biochemist, and to: Edward Lawrie Tatum (1909 - 1975) American biochemist, "for their discovery that genes act by regulating definite chemical events", and the other half to: Joshua Lederberg (1925 - 2008) American microbiologist and geneticist, "for his discoveries concerning genetic recombination and the organization of the genetic material of bacteria".

1957:Daniel Bovet (1907 - 1992) Swiss-born Italian pharmacologist, "for his discoveries relating to synthetic compounds that inhibit the action of certain body substances, and especially their action on the vascular system and the skeletal muscles".

1954: jointly to: John Franklin Enders (1897 - 1985) American physician and virologist, to Thomas Huckle Weller (1915 - 2008 ) American pediatrician and virologist, and to Frederick Chapman Robbins (1916 - 2003) American pediatrician and virologist, to "for their discovery of the ability of poliomyelitis viruses to grow in cultures of various types of tissue".

1953: jointly to: Hans Adolf Krebs (1900 - 1981) German-born British biochemist, "for his discovery of the citric acid cycle" and to Fritz Albert Lipmann (1899 - 1986) German-born American biochemist, "for his discovery of co-enzyme A and its importance for intermediary metabolism".

1952:Selman Abraham Waksman (1888 - 1973) Jewish/Ukrainian-born American inventor, biochemist and microbiologist, "for his discovery of streptomycin, the first antibiotic effective against tuberculosis"

1949: jointly to: Walter Rudolf Hess (1881 - 1973) Swiss physiologist "for his discovery of the functional organization of the interbrain as a coordinator of the activities of the internal organs", and to Egas Moniz (1874 - 1955) Portuguese neurologist and the developer of cerebral angiography, "for his discovery of the therapeutic value of leucotomy in certain psychoses".

1948:Paul Hermann Müller (1899 - 1965) Swiss chemist, "for his discovery of the high efficiency of DDT as a contact poison against several arthropods".

1947: divided, one half jointly to Carl Ferdinand Cori (1896 - 1984) Czech-American biochemist and pharmacologist, and Gerty Theresa Cori (née Radnitz) (1896 - 1957), Czech-American biochemist, "for their discovery of the course of the catalytic conversion of glycogen" and the other half to: Bernardo Alberto Houssay (1887 - 1971) Argentinian physiologist, "for his discovery of the part played by the hormone of the anterior pituitary lobe in the metabolism of sugar".

1946:Hermann Joseph Muller (1890 – 1967) American geneticist, educator, "for the discovery that mutations can be induced by x-rays".

1939:Gerhard Domagk (1895 - 1964) German microbiologist, "for the discovery of the antibacterial effects of prontosil"

1938:Corneille Jean François Heymans (1892 - 1968) Belgian physiologist, "for the discovery of the role played by the sinus and aortic mechanisms in the regulation of respiration"

1937:Albert von Szent-Györgyi de Nagyrápolt (1893 - 1986) Hungarian-American physiologist, "for his discoveries in connection with the biological combustion processes, with special reference to vitamin C and the catalysis of fumaric acid".

1922:Archibald Vivian Hill (1986 - 1977) English physiologist, one of the founders of the diverse disciplines of biophysics, "for his discovery relating to the production of heat in the muscle" and Otto Fritz Meyerhof (1884 – 1951) German-born physician and biochemist, "for his discovery of the fixed relationship between the consumption of oxygen and the metabolism of lactic acid in the muscle"

1914:Robert Bárány (1876 - 1936) Austro-Hungarian otologist, "for his work on the physiology and pathology of the vestibular apparatus".

1913:Charles Robert Richet (1850 - 1935) French physiologist, "in recognition of his work on anaphylaxis"

1912:Alexis Carrel (1873 - 1944) French surgeon and biologist, "in recognition of his work on vascular suture and the transplantation of blood vessels and organs".

1911:Allvar Gullstrand (1862 - 1930) Swedish ophthalmologist and optician, "for his work on the dioptrics of the eye".

1910:Albrecht Kossel (1853 - 1927) German biochemist and pioneer in the study of genetics, "in recognition of the contributions to our knowledge of cell chemistry made through his work on proteins, including the nucleic substances".

1909: Emil Theodor Kocher (1841 - 1917) Swiss physician and medical researcher, "for his work on the physiology, pathology and surgery of the thyroid gland".

1905:Robert Koch (1843 – 1910) German physician, considered one of the founders of microbiology, "for his investigations and discoveries in relation to tuberculosis".

1904:Ivan Petrovich Pavlov (1849 – 1936) Russian physiologist, "in recognition of his work on the physiology of digestion, through which knowledge on vital aspects of the subject has been transformed and enlarged".

1903:Niels Ryberg Finsen (1860 – 1904) Faroese-Danish physician and scientist, "in recognition of his contribution to the treatment of diseases, especially lupus vulgaris, with concentrated light radiation, whereby he has opened a new avenue for medical science". The first Danish winner.

1902:Ronald Ross (1857 – 1932) British physician, "for his work on malaria, by which he has shown how it enters the organism and thereby has laid the foundation for successful research on this disease and methods of combating it". He identified the mosquito as the transmitter of malaria.

1901:Emil Adolf von Behring (1854 –1917) German physiologist, "for his work on serum therapy, especially its application against diphtheria, by which he has opened a new road in the domain of medical science and thereby placed in the hands of the physician a victorious weapon against illness and deaths".

From SA Max Theiler, (1899-1972.) Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine in 1951 for vaccine for Yellow Fever.

From SA Allan McLeod Cormack (1924-1998.) Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine in 1951 for x-ray tomography. Born and studied in SA. X-ray work started in Cape Town before emigration to USA. Co-inventor of the CT scanner.

From SA Sydney Brenner (1927-) Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine in 2002 for work in RNA biology. Born and educated in SA, moved to England to pursue research work]